Read Sanctuary for Free Online

in the door behind him Judd heard his grandmother stirring. She would be rising soon, and she would be hungry. It is not easy to awaken hungry and know that you will go to bed hungry, too.
    Judd sighed.
    Holding the quarter clenched tightly in his hand, he walked up the hill toward the slaughterhouse, but there was no spring in his step and only resignation in his eyes.
    Jasper and the others had trimmed around the steer’s hind-quarters, and they were trying to strip the hide off the animal, tugging at it like ants tugging a grasshopper back to their hill. Entrails lay in a pool beneath the steer, and occasionally one of the men would step in them, grunting as he slipped.
    â€œSon of a bitch doesn’t want to give it up, does he?” one man asked, wiping the sweat from his forehead on a blood-soaked sleeve.
    â€œProbably figures there’s still some cold left this spring,” another replied, and the men chuckled, still grunting from the effort.
    Judd had walked up behind the group, and he stood there waiting for one of them to notice him, but no one did.
    Finally the hide peeled off, prodded along here and there by the fine edge of a knife. The skin was pulled off the animal’s neck and draped for a moment over the steer’s head, as though the animal were embarrassed by its nakedness.
    Jasper grabbed a saw from a nearby table and began cutting the animal’s head off. He was through the spine in a matter of minutes and his knife made short work of the rest of the steer’s throat.
    The men draped the hide, hair down, on a fence. One bent over the animal’s head, grunting as he dug the steer’s tongue free from its skull. He held it up, gray and rough as a rasp, before dropping it in a galvanized tub with the heart and liver.
    The others had stopped for a moment, breathing deeply, their breath painting plumes in the air.
    It was then that Judd cleared his throat.
    The boy’s heart was racing, and even in the cold he could feel a drop of sweat course down his back, but he attempted to carve his face from stone as the men looked up.
    â€œYou can count on it, can’t you, boys?” Jasper said. “Butcher, and the smell will bring out all the dogs within sniffing distance. Sorry-looking mutt, ain’t he.”
    â€œI have money,” Judd said, holding out the quarter.
    Jasper slapped the bottom of Judd’s hand, and the coin sailed into the air beyond his reach but not beyond Jasper’s. He snatched it like a rainbow trout chasing a stone fly.
    â€œI’ll be damned,” Jasper said in mock amazement, pocketing the coin. “It can talk, just like it was a real person. What’s this world coming to?”
    Sniggers rippled through the men. They had watched Jasper play this game before.
    â€œWonder if this talking dog knows any tricks? You’d think a smart dog like him would know something.”
    Jasper leaned down and sliced a handful of meat off a fresh liver. He held the meat shoulder high.
    â€œLet’s see you beg. Smart dog like you ought to be able to beg.”
    Judd knew the routine. He tried to turn off his mind, focusing only on the hunger he had seen etched on his grandmother’s face. He tried to remember the thin faces and the big black eyes of the Old Hawk children. And then he dropped to his knees, holding his hands in front of him as a begging dog might hold his paws.
    â€œSee,” Jasper said. “That dog ain’t as stupid as he looks. He picked up begging right off. Now, let’s see another trick, dog. Let’s see you roll over.”
    The ground was stained with the blood of a thousand steers. Weeds and maggots shared that bloody brew, but Judd did as he was told, his eyes open and staring, seeing only the face of his grandmother.
    â€œNow this is the tough trick,” Jasper hissed, and the grin on his face was a terrible thing to see. “This dog’s going to have to catch this liver in his